The very issues that brought down Stephen Harper’s Conservatives last month are expected to dog him in the first of the leaders’ debates tonight after new revelations about spending by his government.

Credibility and the lack of disclosure on public spending were at the heart of a historic non-confidence vote that defeated the minority government March 25 and launched the 36-day election campaign.

Largely ignored through the first two weeks of campaigning, the unprecedented finding that Harper’s government was in contempt of Parliament will no doubt return to the fore after Monday’s bombshell.

The early draft of a report on summit spending by Auditor General Sheila Fraser, shown to The Canadian Press, promises to give new life to the old opposition theme that the Conservatives can’t be trusted.

The report charges pork-barrel largesse, cites dubious government spending and tells of a “misinformed” Parliament — but the Conservatives are dismissing it as a dud.

Green leader Elizabeth May won’t be at tonight’s English language debate — she wasn’t invited. The French debate goes Wednesday evening, moved up a day to make way for televised coverage of the NHL playoffs.

The AG’s confidential draft says the government misinformed Parliament to win approval for a $50-million G8 fund that lavished money on questionable projects in the riding of Industry Minister Tony Clement.

And it suggests the process by which the funding was approved may have been illegal.

Conservative cabinet minister John Baird insisted Monday that subsequent versions differ from the Jan. 13 draft — most notably in that they don’t say the government “misinformed” Parliament.

CTV News then obtained a later version of the report, completed last February, that the network says does, indeed, drop those words. But the document is no less damning of Tory practices.

The issues that brought last month’s contempt finding focused on Conservative fiscal management, as well — a refusal to disclose details of spending on fighter jets, on the Tories’ anti-crime agenda, and on corporate tax cuts.

It was the first time a Commonwealth government had been cited for contempt, yet the catalyst for the May 2 election quickly became lost in the brouhaha that erupted when Harper warned Canadians they would face an opposition coalition if they didn’t hand him a majority.

Harper has told campaign audiences it was the Tories’ election-style budget, laced with half-concessions to the New Democrats, particularly, that defeated the government.

Not so, but he doesn’t mention the contempt citation.

Now, with Monday’s revelations and reports the F-35 jets will cost twice what the government claims they will, Harper’s spending agenda and his administration’s secretive and manipulative ways will no doubt drive tonight’s faceoff.

The AG’s report, put on ice when the government fell, says a local “G8 summit liaison and implementation team” that included Clement and two mayors chose the 32 projects that received funding.

The report says the team had no apparent regard for the needs of the summit or the conditions laid down by the government, heaping money on areas far from the summit locale.

Harper’s election campaign got off to a rough start, what with the F-35 issue, niggling problems with workers in local campaigns, controversy over the Orwellian-style banishments of apparently unpalpable guests at rallies, and a full-blown scandal involving a senior adviser with a string of fraud convictions.

But polls suggest the Conservative leader hasn’t suffered any tangible losses, in spite of it all.

The latest poll, by The Canadian Press-Harris Decima, was released Monday. It suggested the Tories were close to majority territory with 40 per cent support compared to the Liberals’ 28.

Historians and political scientists debate the lasting impact televised leaders’ debates have had on election campaigns in Canada.

The biggest no doubt came in 1984, when John Turner’s Liberals were heavily favoured by pollsters to hold on to government. During the debate, Tory Brian Mulroney lashed out at Turner for keeping his predecessor’s last-act patronage appointments to the Senate.

Mulroney’s finger-pointing “you had an option, sir” was the debate’s knock-out punch and the turning point of the election. His Progressive Conservatives swept to a majority victory.